How Can I Continue Studying Physics on My Own?

[Unicyclist]

I have recently graduated from High School. I got my A-levels in Maths and Physics and did the Advanced Extension in Physics(liked it a lot, too). I want to continue studying physics at university, however it seems to be not possible right now, so I'll take a break for a year and go to Cyprus College to take a course in Electrical Engineering or something like that(I'm not all too excited about it). It'll have some introductory level lectures in physics and maths, but I doubt it'll be enough for me. So, basically I want to study a bit of physics on my own before I get to go to university.

How would I go about doing that? Can you point me to some good resources that would allow self-tutoring in physics and maths? I need theory and I need some exercises with answers for me to check myself. I'm also thinking of purchasing a few text-books, but probably not just yet.

Hmm, maybe the electrical engineering can help me with laboratory physics... You never know.

Edit: whoops, no electrical engineering, it's all computer engineering, which is way worse in my opinion. You can read the course descriphttp://www.cycollege.ac.cy/academics/default.cfm?category=2&subcategory=4&school=4ere...

 

[loto]

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/index.htm

There are a few universities doing similar things (offering notes/homework from courses online) but most if not all require a textbook of some sort. If you feel like skirting the law a bit, there are a large number of physics books availible through BitTorrent (I used a PDF copy of Griffiths' Intro to Electrodynamics until I could afford the book :P). My thoughts on it is that if you are going to buy the book eventually (which you most definitely should!) it is fine to download it until you can afford it.

Also, many libraries (university and otherwise) offer copies of physics texts. A third option is ordering an older version of a common text (Halliday, Resnick, and Walker for example) online. These will generally be much, much cheaper than the current edition. Amazon is a good site for this.

Oh, and wikipedia is a surprisingly good way to get a good overview of a topic.

Hope this helps a little!

 

[electric.avenue]

This is the first year textbook for a number of UK uni physics first year undergrad courses:

http://bcs.whfreeman.com/tiplerphysics5e/default.asp?s=&n=&i=&v=&o=&ns=0&uid=0&rau=0

Costs forty quid on Amazon.

 

[Unicyclist]

Those MIT lecture notes seem quite useful. And the questions are a bit more challenging than what I'm used to from school. I like it.

What books would you recommend getting? I'm thinking to get the Feynman lectures, as apparently they're really good.

 

[Terilien]

I suggest you suplement the feynman lectures, with something else. As entertaining as they are, they aren't a very suitable introduction to physics(buy them anyway though).

 

[mgb_phys]

The Feynam lectures are a very good read, for physics grad students,
they do assume a very high background in maths.
You could call the physics dept admissions and ask what the intro physics books are for their classes.